Waking Up in the Dirt (V2)
by B33FST3W
Summary: Waking up in the dirt in the middle of a forest is not how I envisioned my Sunday morning going. Is that a dead body? SI-OC into Fire Emblem Three Houses.


Chapter One: Waking Up in the Dirt

Clanging blades, inhuman screaming in the distance and the nearby coppery smell of blood is what I awoke to, on what should have been a usual mundane Sunday lazing around my dorm. However, I quickly realised this was not the case. I find myself lying on the ground in a forest, with my head aching and missing the comfort of my bed.

I quickly got up, dusting myself off from the dirt I had been laying on moments before and took a quick look at my surroundings. I noticed a bloody man in medieval European-esque armour, who looks dead, or wounded beyond recovery. After making sure that whatever had killed the man in armour was not in my nearby, I approached the man.

I check to see if the man is still alive, but he seemed to have passed from his wounds. Since the man was no longer among the living, I promptly confiscated his belongings, a dagger, a short-sword just out of the reach of his hand, and the means to sheathe the weapon. While this may be seen in a rather poor light by most people, I thought it to be necessary, due to the sounds of battle nearby, I should have a way to protect myself from whatever killed the man.

After checking over the man's body once more to make sure that he didn't have any identification or modern technology that could have possibly proven this abduction to be some sort of elaborate prank, I begin to slowly walk towards the sounds of conflict. All the while I make sure to make as little noise as possible.

In the distance I notice a small encampment with a watchtower in the centre of it. I think I might have seen the tower before, but that couldn't be it, I try to convince myself. I then try to find a vantage point so that I can see where the sounds of battle are coming from. At the same time, I thank my lucky stars that I still have clothes on, whoever brought me to this forest at least left me with my dignity.

As I reach the top of a small hill, I manage to see the battle I had been hearing for the past 5 minutes or so. Unfortunately it would appear that my memory was correct regarding the tower, I had seen it before, just not in person, but rather through a screen. As I come to this conclusion, I notice a small group of people approaching the battle, now knowing the one side to be bandits, and the other being Remire villagers. I assume these individuals to be a response to the bandits, likely Byleth and the lords of Three Houses, escorted by a handful of Jeralt's mercenaries.

From the vantage point on the hill, I notice that the villagers (such as the dead man in armor) are being slaughtered by the bandits. I see that I am to the rear of the bandits. While I do think it would be safer to leave the remaining villagers to an unfortunate fate of being killed by the bandits, I decide against it. I begin to flank the bandits that are fighting the villagers.

While you might think someone from a modern time period such as myself wouldn't have any experience with a sword and shield, you would be mistaken. While that would be the case for most people, I had an interesting hobby; fighting in the International Medieval Combat Federation or IMCF. While this would certainly have much higher stakes than a recreational fighting match, (not to mention not wearing armour) I am confident in being able to pick off one or two to assist the villagers. From the looks of it only the leader (_I think his name was Kostas_), has any formal training, with the other bandits going for a 'hit harder than the villagers' technique.

I finally reach the rear of the bandits, to the left of me a villager is holding off a bandit with a spear and shield, to the front of me is my target, a fool of a bandit looting the corpse of a villager before the end of a battle. I slowly approach him from behind, he notices me far too late and just as he tries to raise his axe to intercept my sword it's too late, and tear through the bastard's throat. After making sure the bandit is dead, I quickly move to assist the villager holding off the other two bandits, who fortunately hadn't noticed the decapitation of their comrade. One of the bandits cried out, "Ringo! What the fuck are you doing! Quit looting that body and help us out here!" shouts the bandit. I smirk as I approach him from behind, "Ringo, the fuck are you doing?! What the fuck, you killed Ringo, bastard!" he curses at me as he dodges my strike, momentarily forgetting his previous combatant. A fatal mistake, the villager's spear goes through his neck, spewing out blood, grasping at his throat before collapsing into a heap.

The other bandit is startled by his comrade's death, and I make use of the distraction and engage him in combat. I manage to keep the bandit distracted long enough for the villager wielding a spear to wound him, this provides me with an opening and I finish the bandit off with a stab to the abdomen.

"Whew! Thanks for the save, stranger! You sure saved my behind, woulda' been a goner without your help. The name's Donny, nice to meetcha!" He greets me.

"It's no problem, I couldn't just let you get tag teamed by those bandits, my name's Keith, a pleasure." I reply, (_though if I were being honest if I wasn't confident in being able to fight off those bandits, I would have totally ran_). "I wish we could have met during a better time, Donny, but we should probably get back to fending off those bandits", (_I would rather not have deaths that I could have prevented on my conscience, to be quite honest_).

"O' course Mister Keith, let's get to it then!" he replies as jovially as one can in this situation. Donny seems to be quite a jolly fellow, even in a situation as bad as a bandit raid. After snagging the axe from the first bandit's dead body, Donny and I hurry to assist the rest of the remaining villagers in resisting the bandits.

Donny and I fight a number of bandits throughout the village, coming across a few survivors, with a handful of armed men joining us. We finally track down the leader of the brihands, Kostas. We come across a woman fighting the bastard, unfortunately we reach the villager just as she was cut down by Kostas. "MAAA!" Donny screams in agony "YOU SONOFABITCH! YOU KILLED MY MA!"

Kostas sends a smug grin towards Donny's direction. "Hahaha, was that your mommy? Don't worry kid, you'll join her soon!" the bandit leader taunts.

"Donny wait!" I warn, but I am too late, as he rushes Kostas and a handful of his men without help. He is quickly struck down by Kostas. Seeing Donny's bloody body near Kostas' feet fills me with rage, but the remaining villagers and I make a more careful approach towards Kostas.

"So you bastards are the ones killing my men!? I'LL CUT YOU DOWN WHERE YOU STAND! Just like your pal here!" an angered Kostas gestures towards Donny. The bandits begin to rush the villagers and myself, with Kostas focusing on me. I block his first strike with my shield, with a small crack appearing. In retaliation I jab my sword towards him, which he dodges, pulling back, allowing me to advance on his position and try to slash at him, to which barely he blocks.

"Is that the best you got kid?!" he baits me on, but I don't bite. Instead fake a strike at him and when he goes to block I knee him in the gut, making him lose his breath. I follow up with a shield bash to his face, bloodying his nose and disorienting him. He glares at me with something fierce. "All you pissants had to do was give up the Noble brats!" he snarls.

I don't reply to him and stab at his midsection, but he pulls back, trying to get at me with his axe. I block the assault with my shield, however, the shield finally gives, leaving me neigh defenseless. I make the best of this and while his axe is embedded in my shield and tackle him to the ground, drawing my dagger for close quarters.

I stab at Kostas' unprotected throat, but he blocks my blade with his forearm. Screaming in pain, forces me back with a large dagger of his own. "DAMN YOU! This hurts like a sonofabitch! I'll pay you back tenfold!" he screams out while stabbing at me.

I am barely able to dodge his stabbing barrage, and getting a small cut on my cheek. I notice my dagger is still embedded in the bandit leader's arm and quickly pull it out, causing Kostas no small discomfort. I then proceed to use my returned knife to 'stick it' to Kostas, right in the neck. The bandit leader shrieks in surprise, "Damn... you…" he groans before leaving the land of the living.

I check my surroundings before catching my breath, noticing most of the villagers have beaten back the brigands with the help of some newly arrived mercenaries (_likely Jeralt's group_). Just as I am beginning to relax, I notice one of the few brigand archers notching an arrow towards the Adrestian Empire's heir apparent, Edelgard. I shout out to attempt to warn her of the danger, "Look out!.", but the arrow is already nearing it's target. Fortunately for Edelgard, it looks like the blue haired protagonist himself, Byleth takes the arrow for her.

At least it looked like he did, until he didn't, (the distortion of time is a weird thing to see in person). Instead of taking the arrow, Byleth deflects the arrow with his iron sword, saving the future empress from an early death.

Somehow I doubt she was in any real danger, given what she could do as flame emperor in the game, and with Hubert likely watching, she likely wasn't in any real danger.

I notice a brute of a bandit (a similar look to Kostas, now that I think about it) begin to shout out to the remaining bandits. "RETREAT! RETREAT DAMN IT!" he bellows. With the new head bandit leading, the bandits begin to withdraw from the village.

I am about to make a chase, but remember the importance of the Red Canyon missions to Byleth and Sothis, so instead I head to Donny's bloody body to see if he is still still alive. I check for a pulse, after finding one I tend to any wounds that I can help patch up, fortunately he seems to only have superficial injuries. I sighed from relief, while I just met the guy, he seemed like a nice enough guy, especially for a medieval esque setting. (_It's a pity for someone like him to have such a tragedy happen to him_) I think to myself.

I hear footsteps heading towards me, I stand up and turn around to see a worried villager looking around carrying medical supplies. I call out to her, "Hello! Miss, I could use some assistance with my friend here.". The woman heeds my words and quickly heads over.

As she approaches she cries out, "Oh my goddess, Donny! Please tell me he's alright!" She looks worriedly towards me.

I grimace, "As far as I can tell he only has minor injuries, but I don't have any medical experience, you would probably have a better idea." (_I'd gather she's somewhat trained in medicine from the stuff she's carrying_).

After giving Donny a quick check over, the woman sighs in relief and introduces herself. "Thank you so much for helping Donny, I wouldn't know what to do without him; I'm his fiance Cheyrl, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you as well, my name is Keith, it's nice to meet you." I reply. After helping Cheyrl bring Donny back to his home, I lend my aid to helping any of the village's pressing issues, such as putting out the fires the brigands started when harassing the village.

Once all is settled and night begins to fall on the village, I check up on Cheryl and the newly awakened Donny. Noticing my approach, Donny gives me a pained smile, which is understandable with being both injured and losing a family member in quick succession, I doubt anyone could be happy. "Hey Donny... I was just checking up on you, how are your injuries?" I ask, hopefully I was right with my assessment of him only having light wounds.

"Not too bad, besides a cut on my chest, and a bruise on my head, the thing that hurts the most is losin' my ma…", I send him a look of understanding. The feeling of losing someone dear to you is a horrible feeling indeed.

After eating with Donny and his soon to be bride, they allow me to stay the night after I explain my situation as a newly christened vagabond, without mentioning that I am in fact from another world (_I'd rather not get ostracized from the only people I know in this world so far_).

As I lie there in the guest bedroom, I can only wonder what can come of my future. Is the future set in stone, with Byleth's choice being the only factor that matters? Or can I change it for the better through my actions? Only time can tell.


End file.
